Big Hoppa’s Bracket: Year 8

Mar 19, 2024
It’s the best time of the year, March Madness. If you know me AT ALL you know that as much as I love sports year-round, this is truly my favorite time of the year. Last year, in my 7th year of k...

2023 Michigan State Spartans Football Preview

Aug 10, 2023
The Michigan State Spartans took a huge step back in 2022 as they went 5-7 last season. In the year prior, they won 11 games and were a top ten team in the country. Head coach Mel Tucker has a lot of ...

2023 Penn State Nittany Lions Football Preview

Aug 10, 2023
Penn State is looking to build off of last season’s success. They have 14 total returning starters and are poised to push Michigan and Ohio State for the Big Ten title in 2023. This Nittany Lions te...

2023 Minnesota Golden Gophers Football Preview

Aug 6, 2023
P.J. Fleck has helped Minnesota win nine games in back to back seasons. This team has the potential to be a sneaky team in the Big Ten West. Just when you think they are out, the Golden Gophers have f...

2023 Northwestern Wildcats Football Preview

Aug 5, 2023
Everything is changing in Evanston, Illinois. Northwestern has their first season without Pat Fitzgerald since 2006. The Wildcats have won just four games in the last two seasons. A whole culture chan...

2023 Purdue Boilermakers Football Preview

Aug 5, 2023
The Purdue Boilermakers are in the middle of a shake-up heading into 2023. Purdue has a first year head coach in Ryan Walters, who last season was the Illinois defensive coordinator. Last year, this t...

2023 Indiana Hoosiers Football Preview

Aug 3, 2023
The Indiana Hoosiers are trying to improve from their 6-18 record over the last two seasons and have won only two Big Ten games since the 2021 season. Head coach Tom Allen wants to get this team on tr...

2023 Wisconsin Badgers Football Preview

Aug 2, 2023
The Luke Fickell era in Madison is officially underway. Wisconsin is looking to get back to the Big Ten title game for the first time since 2019. The Badgers are poised for a run at the Big Ten West t...

UCF Knights: The Big 12’s Newest Challenger

Jul 21, 2023
The UCF Knights have left the AAC and have joined the Big 12. It is now Gus Malzahn’s second power five conference that he has coached in his coaching career. The UCF Knights have a good group comin...

2023 Oklahoma State Cowboys Preview

Jul 20, 2023
The Oklahoma State Cowboys haven’t had a losing season since 2005. Gundy’s streak will be put to the test this season. A lot of question marks on the offensive and defensive side of the football m...

Kansas State: Back To The Big 12 Title Game?

Jul 18, 2023
The Kansas State Wildcats are looking to build off a successful run last year that included a Big 12 Championship. Last year was the best record in the Chris Klieman era. Kansas State won their first ...

2023 Kansas Jayhawks Football Preview

Jul 18, 2023
The 2022 Kansas Jayhawks had their best overall season since 2008. Kansas has the tools to take that step forward again in 2023. They have Lance Leipold entering his third season and they have some ke...

2023 Baylor Bears Football Preview

Jul 14, 2023
The Baylor Bears had some hype around them last season after they won the 2021 BIG 12 Conference Title. However, 2022 was a real disappointment for Baylor. They finished 6-7 and it led to some changes...

2023 Mississippi State Bulldogs Preview

Jul 13, 2023
Mississippi State is officially in the Zach Arnett era as he takes over for the legendary head coach Mike Leach. They are doing away with the air raid offense, as they bring in a new offensive coordin...

Can South Carolina Make It Three Straight Bowl Trips?

Jul 12, 2023
South Carolina had two huge wins over Tennessee and Clemson that helped the Gamecocks finish on a high note in 2022. They come into 2023 with the chance to take a step forward. However, a lot of quest...

Is Missouri An SEC Sleeper Team In 2023?

Jul 12, 2023
The Missouri Tigers have had two winning seasons since joining the SEC in 2016. Their head coach Eli Drinkwitz has had three starting quarterbacks the last three seasons and none of them have worked o...

Is Auburn Back From Their Mediocre Stint?

Jul 8, 2023
The Auburn Tigers are entering year number three without Gus Malzahn. The Brian Harsin experience didn’t work so the Tigers had to go in a different direction. Auburn brings in Hugh Freeze and all e...

Will Boston College Football Put Up A Fight In 2023?

Jun 30, 2023
The Boston College Eagles are in a position where they won’t make a run at the ACC title game, but they could be a thorn in the ACC’s side. The Jeff Hafley era hasn’t been what Eagles fans would...

Does UNC Football Live Up To Potential In 2023?

Jun 27, 2023
The UNC Tar Heels are looking to build on their success since Mack Brown came to town. Since 2019, the Tar Heels have made a bowl each and every year. This year they have a chance to contend in the AC...

Are Dark Times Ahead For Pittsburgh Football in 2023?

Jun 25, 2023
The Pittsburgh Panthers are in for a rebuild in multiple spots in 2023. Despite winning 20 games the last two seasons, the Panthers have some new faces that I don’t think will fit in with what Nardu...

What Direction Does NC State Football Go In 2023?

Jun 25, 2023
The NC State Wolfpack have been consistent in the ACC in five out of the last six seasons. They have won at least eight games a season in five out of their last six seasons, and have been in contentio...

Will Louisville Make Noise In The ACC?

Jun 21, 2023
With Scott Satterfield leaving, the Louisville Cardinals didn’t know what the future was going to hold. Once the job opened up, they decided to call former quarterback and native son Jeff Brohm back...

First Four: Mississippi State vs Pittsburgh Prediction

Mar 14, 2023
The NCAA tournament is back ladies and gentlemen and I am beyond excited. Tonight we have a first four matchup between two teams in power five conferences. We have the Mississippi State Bulldogs takin...

2023 Conference USA Basketball Tournament Predictions

Mar 10, 2023
The 2023 Conference USA basketball tournament should be an interesting one. There are a couple of teams that are fighting to get in via an automatic bid. However, only one of these top three teams wil...

2023 PAC-12 Tournament Predictions

Mar 9, 2023
The PAC-12 is not as one-sided as you might think this year. UCLA and Arizona are definitely the two best teams in this tournament. However, there are some teams that are being slept on that could eas...

2023 Big Ten Tournament Predictions

Mar 9, 2023
This Big Ten conference is full of competitive teams that are consistently beating up on one another. There is a “favorite” in Purdue, but I am not sold on the Boilermakers. I have seen th...

2023 Big 12 Basketball Tournament Predictions

Mar 9, 2023
The Big 12 tournament is going to be the best conference tournament in the country hands down. Looking ahead there are so many good matchups from the quarterfinals all the way to the finals. There is ...

2023 SEC Basketball Tournament Predictions

Mar 9, 2023
The 2023 SEC basketball season has been one of the more interesting conferences in all of college basketball. There are six to seven good teams that could make nice little runs in not only the confere...

2023 Big East Basketball Tournament Predictions

Mar 9, 2023
The Big East tournament is always a fantastic tournament from start to finish. If there is any conference where we can see a good tournament run by an underdog, this would be the tournament. There is ...

2023 MAAC Basketball Tournament Predictions

Mar 7, 2023
The 2023 MAAC tournament looks to have a winner before the tournament starts. There is a clear cut favorite that is way above the level that this conference is offering. However, there is some value h...

2023 WAC Basketball Tournament Predictions

Mar 7, 2023
The 2023 WAC tournament is completely up for grabs here. There is no clear-cut favorite, but there are two teams that look to be a tier above the rest. However, in this conference, anybody can beat ea...

2023 ACC Tournament Predictions

Mar 7, 2023
The 2023 ACC tournament has got the potential to see the most upsets in all of the conference tournaments that will be played this year. There are no really good ACC teams, as the majority of the team...

2023 Atlantic 10 Tournament Predictions

Mar 7, 2023
The Atlantic 10 tournament is going to be one of the best conference tournaments in the country. There are four to five teams that can win this tournament and I am beyond excited to see how it plays o...

2023 Southland Basketball Tournament Predictions

Mar 4, 2023
The Southland tournament has some potential intriguing matchups that I am looking forward to seeing if we get them. However, I really do think this is a two team race. Now don’t get me wrong, I ...

2023 Big Sky Basketball Tournament Predictions

Mar 4, 2023
The 2023 Big Sky Tournament is going to have a lot of fun games and will be very entertaining. There is no clear-cut favorite to win this tournament, and I can see three teams vying at the chance to r...

2023 America East Basketball Tournament Predictions

Mar 4, 2023
The America East has been dominated by Vermont the last couple of months. However, after a bad non-conference start, I think the Catamounts are in trouble. There are a couple of teams here that can up...

2023 SOCON Basketball Tournament Predictions

Mar 3, 2023
The SOCON tournament has the potential to be an intriguing one from the mid-majors. I see two teams that can win this tournament. Here, I’ll break it all down and feed the people a winner. The B...

2023 Summit Basketball Tournament Predictions

Mar 3, 2023
The 2023 Summit conference tournament is a two horse race to the title. There is a clear favorite in Oral Roberts and a team that will keep them on their toes in South Dakota State. Oral Roberts hasn&...

2023 CAA Basketball Tournament Predictions

Mar 2, 2023
The CAA conference tournament could cause a little drama. There are three to four teams that have a chance at winning this conference tournament. This tournament is one that I am watching extremely cl...

2023 WCC Basketball Tournament Predictions

Mar 2, 2023
The WCC tournament has been a one to two horse race over the past decade or so. WCC powerhouses are none other than Gonzaga and St. Mary’s. Both teams have made multiple NCAA tournaments over th...

2023 Ohio Valley Basketball Tournament Predictions

Mar 1, 2023
The Ohio Valley conference tournament is about to be underway and this should be an interesting tournament from start to finish. There is one team with better odds than anybody else in the conference ...

2023 Big South Basketball Tournament Predictions

Mar 1, 2023
The 2023 Big South tournament has the potential to be an interesting mid-major tournament. There is no clear cut favorite to win this conference tournament title and it might be one of the more intrig...

3/1 The Don’s Best NCAAB Bets

Mar 1, 2023
We had yet another winning day in betting on the conference tournaments. We went 5-3 (+1.68u) and it puts our record to 8-3 (+5.18u) in conference tournament bets so far. That is a 72.7% success rate ...

2/28 Best CBB Conference Tournament Bets

Feb 28, 2023
Yesterday, was the first day of the conference tournament season. Boy was it a good one for your boy. That is right we hit all three of our Atlantic Sun bets including Bellarmine spread and moneyline....

2023 Patriot League Basketball Tournament Predictions

Feb 28, 2023
The Patriot League regular season title was Colgate’s from start to finish. They lost one game in conference and it was by one point to American. Other than that they finished six games ahead of...

2023 Horizon Conference Tournament Predictions

Feb 28, 2023
The Horizon conference tournament kicks off and we are ready for the chaos that could come from with it. Last year we saw Wright State take home the crown and earn their ticket to the NCAA tournament ...

Best Round One A-Sun Conference Tournament Bets

Feb 27, 2023
The Atlantic Sun Conference tournament kicks off today with two first round matchups. The day kicks off with the 8th seed Bellarmine taking on the 7th seed North Florida. The other matchup is the 10th...

Purdue vs. Ohio State | CBB Prediction 1/5/23

Jan 5, 2023
Come one, come all to the highly anticipated Big Ten matchup at the Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio, where the No. 1 ranked Purdue Boilermakers will face off against the No. 24 Ohio State Buckeyes....

2022 FINAL FOUR PREVIEW: Villanova vs. Kansas

Apr 1, 2022
While Duke-UNC is stealing all the headlines (rightfully so), this battle of blue bloods is quite the appetizer. I would argue this may be the best Final Four of all time in terms of name brand recogn...

2022 FINAL FOUR PREVIEW: North Carolina vs. Duke

Apr 1, 2022
Two blue blood programs from the ACC clash for the chance to play in the NCAA National Championship. The Duke Blue Devils take on the North Carolina Tar Heels tomorrow night at 8:49 in a rematch of C...

Re-Ranking The Sweet 16 Teams

Mar 26, 2021
As we head into the weekend, 16 teams remain in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Those 16 include some usual suspects, and some… unexpected faces. The average seed for this year’...

2021 Big Ten Tournament Preview

Mar 8, 2021
Bracket Favorite: Michigan (+150) The Juwan Howard-led Michigan Wolverines ended the season with a 19-3 record, placing them No. 2 in the Top 25. Freshman big man Hunter Dickinson posted a stat line o...

Pac-12 Players Threaten to Boycott

Aug 2, 2020
On Sunday morning ThePlayersTribune.com posted a message from an anonymous group of Pac-12 players on their website. The Pac-12 players expressed their concerns and list their demands for the upcoming...

Sports Are “Totally” Going To Happen

Jul 9, 2020
I’m starting to see the vision. With every passing day, my optimism for watching college football is waning. This recent news doesn’t help. Now I understand that a school like Harvard is n...

2020 Ohio Valley Tournament Preview

Mar 3, 2020
For the last several years, the OVC has annually been the first automatic bid given out during championship week. That changes this year, but the excitement happening in Evansville will surely be at a...

Week 19 AP Poll: Kansas Jumps to #1

Feb 24, 2020
In the Week 19 AP Poll, the Kansas Jayhawks have jumped to the number one spot. After defeating Baylor in a top five matchup Saturday, Bill Self and Co. are hitting their stride. Whether Kansas would ...

I’m unhappy with the College Football Playoff

Nov 12, 2019
The table is officially set for two SEC teams in the CFP. We’ve all been bamboozled. The BCS is alive and well under new management. The Playoff is a scam. I’m fine with LSU in the top spo...

Week 11 AAR: Row That Boat

Nov 10, 2019
This is why we love college football. LSU Triumphs Joe Burrow has gone from backing up Dwayne Haskins to establishing himself as arguably the best quarterback in the nation. Has a grad-transfer quarte...

Week 7 AAR: Yikes, Georgia

Oct 14, 2019
The State of Georgia is in flames like it’s 1865 all over again. Much like Gone With the Wind, last week started with so much optimism in the State of Georgia. The Braves lost (twice, got elimin...

Week 5 AAR: Let the Coaching Carou$el Begin

Sep 30, 2019
Week five is over? Happy Trails, Chris Ash Rutgers fired Chris Ash today. Tough to blame them after he posted a 3-26 record in Big Ten play. The Scarlet Knights’ only win this season came in the...

While You Were Sleeping – WSU vs. UCLA

Sep 22, 2019
The Game If you were going to miss a Pac-12 after dark game, this was not the one to do so. Well, unless you love defense. This game was as good as over at halftime with the Cougs up 35-17. Anthony Go...

Week Four Points of Interest

Sep 17, 2019
The points of interest is back. This is essentially just me rambling about the things I’m most interested this week. He’s got a great personality! Clay Helton could be the nicest guy in th...

Week Three After Action Report

Sep 15, 2019
This has turned into a weekly thing at this point. My favorite thing about college football is the variety that it offers. All sorts of cool stuff happens in this sport. Without further delay, here...

Week Three Points of Interest

Sep 11, 2019
I’m just gonna dive right into this thing. I don’t have anything interesting to open with this week. Actually, here’s a fun fact; if he had never scored a goal, Wayne Gretzky would s...

CFB Week Two After Action Report

Sep 8, 2019
There’s nothing better than the first big week of the season. Plenty of intriguing matchups on the board turned into a pretty fun Saturday. From start to finish, this was a great day of football...

March Madness: What We Learned on Day 1

Mar 22, 2019
Day 1 of the 2019 NCAA Tournament is over and done, and plenty of compelling story-lines are already beginning to unfold. Here are three of the major takeaways from Day 1 that fans should keep in mind...

It’s More Than the Player

Feb 23, 2019
In the wake of Zion Williamson’s knee injury on Wednesday against North Carolina, the debate has been on whether Williamson should sit out the rest of the season to preserve his draft spot and avoid...

A Student Athletes Take on Paying College Atheltes

Feb 21, 2019
Duke’s, Zion Williamson, injured himself 30 seconds into arguably the biggest college basketball rivalry in the country last night. Ticket prices were starting at $2,900 for this game and former...

Do You Know what N.E.T. Stands for?

Feb 11, 2019
NET or NCAA evaluation tool is the new RPI ranking, it will help the NCAA rank teams going into March Madness. Step 1, team value index or an algorithm that is set up to only reward teams for beating ...

Surprise, Surprise, the NCAA Does Something Bad Again

Jun 13, 2018
On a day where something actually went well for the NCAA, in only the way they can, they found a way to fuck it up. Two days before announcing that changes were coming to the transfer rule, the NCAA a...

DeVry vs Troy State

Apr 10, 2018
I’ve been working on this article for a while, and while college basketball is over and done with for the season, I still think this is one of the more interesting and intriguing games played in...

Kansas State’s Amaad Wainright arrested

Apr 3, 2018
Kansas State university has indefinitely suspended Junior guard Amaad Wainright for a violation of the athletic department’s policy, presumably the part where it says “don’t get arre...

My Argument against Xavier and Villanova

Mar 12, 2018
Listen, I like college basketball about the same as the next guy on this website. It’s exciting and March Madness is probably the most exciting time of all. However, when the brackets were relea...

The Underdogs of College Basketball: Texas Tech

Feb 27, 2018
The Texas Tech Men’s Basketball team kicked off the season starting 6-0. After their first loss first to Seton Hall, the Red Raiders shocked the nation to then go 14-1, the best starting record ...

Best Power Five Basketball Programs of All Time

Feb 26, 2018
The Kansas Jayhawks have just made history, by winning 14 straight Big 12 conference championships, overcoming UCLA’s 1967-1969 streak that made history and seemed unbeatable, until Saturday, Fe...

Who’s going to win the Big 12?

Jan 29, 2018
We’re approximately halfway through the NCAA regular season and most Power 5 conferences look like they have a solid projected regular season champion. For instance, Virginia is looking like the fav...

Playoffs? PLAYOFFS!

Jan 29, 2018
It’s been a few weeks since the National Championship game and people are still talking about the performance of the Alabama football team. Many forget that Alabama was the fourth seed entering ...

LaVar Steals Headline News Once Again

Dec 21, 2017
LaVar Ball just may be the smartest man on the Earth, I don’t know, but he just announced to Darren Rovell that he was creating a league for premier recruits to go get paid instead of attending ...

Convicts Murder Catholics’ CFP Hopes

Nov 11, 2017
If you’re a college football fan, you gotta love when Notre Dame is having a decent season. Not because you actually root for them or anything like that, but because you get to hear the delusional F...

Mark Emmert Concerned About Public Perception of NCAA

Oct 31, 2017
Recently, the NCAA has come under fire for the handling of many scandals, notably the UNC academic fraud, and the college basketball recruiting scandal. NCAA President Mark Emmert is concerned that th...

On the Ball: Video Game Stats for week 7

Oct 16, 2017
As you can see, this weekly series is called on the ball, which usually is a phrase to show that something is consistent and doing exactly what it needs to do. Unfortunately, my schedule got packed up...

NCAA Investigation Clears UNC of Charges

Oct 13, 2017
After a seven year-long investigation into an academic fraud scandal, the NCAA has cleared the University of North Carolina from any NCAA sanctions. While everyone may jump to the conclusion that UNC ...

Rick Pitino out at Louisville

Sep 27, 2017
As the NCAA Corruption Scandal continues to be unpeeled layer by layer, longtime Louisville Mens Basketball Coach Rick Pitino, and Athletic Director Tom Jurich are the first head coach/AD tandem to be...

On the Ball: Video Game Stats from Week 4

Sep 25, 2017
It seems like we are getting to the point of the season where the contenders and pretenders are starting to shake themselves out. But for some reason, this just felt like a weird week of football. It ...

Mitchell Robinson Finds Hidden Option C

Sep 18, 2017
In recent years, there has been an increase in guys finding ways around the one-and-done NBA rule. Emmanuel Mudiay gave up his scholarship from SMU to play a year in China before getting drafted by th...

On the Ball: Video Game Stats for Week 2

Sep 11, 2017
Well, college football is back in full swing and that means the return of the video game stat lines of the week (yes, I know it is week two, cut me some slack). Through the first two weeks we have see...

The Final Four as Guys at a Bar

Mar 29, 2017
  After an exciting two weeks of March Madness, we are now left with just four teams vying for the title (North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, and Gonzaga for those of you who have lived under...

Teams Win Tournaments, Not Conferences

Mar 25, 2017
There is a lot of talk every year about what the best conference in the country is. Realistically, that concept doesn’t amount to shit. There is so much unnecessary pride that goes into what con...

UNC Sweet Sixteen Preview

Mar 24, 2017
  After barely getting by the Razorbacks of Arkansas in the Round of 32, the Tar Heels head to Memphis for the Sweet Sixteen, just two games away from another Final Four berth. First though, they...

Future Bracket Busters

Nov 23, 2016
Every year in March, some team you’ve never heard of will end up busting your bracket. That is why I plan on keeping you updated throughout the year on what teams are good among the mid-majors and p...

Pay for Play?: The NCAA and Student-Athlete Debate

Nov 10, 2016
The NCAA sells recruits on a dream. But are they the ones that are actually killing that dream? The student-athletes that are employed by the NCAA are unlike any other employee in the fact that while ...

On the Ball: Video Game Stats from Week 7

Oct 17, 2016
(This is a weekly article on Student Union Sports covering the most ridiculous stat lines of the week)   Week 7 brought us a very mixed bag of results. We had a close top-10 game in Wisconsin vs....